Week 22 - Kosovo - End of Transfer 2

forgot to send last week but this was sister's conference at the Weidmann's! All the Motras in our mission :) 7 are going home and 7 are replacing them this week.... I am training one of them!!! 

this is sis t ! she's from durres (Albania) and went through a lot to join the church.. she's amazing and so sweet 

this was from last wk too, got to see motra cheshire again, loove her :)) and her comp motra bezus is so sweet and awesome too!

this is sis Russel! she is amazing!! she's my mission grandma (she trained motra Z.) ignore my chapped lip/ cold sore hahah..

Albania vs. Armenia? (we didn't watch.. just walked passed..) 

 soo cool! today we got to learn how to make byrek and experience behind-the-scenes Kosovo bakery life... all the workers there are so nice and awesome and it was so cool and fun, and they let us all try :) I have some sweet videos of the byrek guy swinging the dough around his head to flatten it out etc.. def. a p-day to remember!

 brown rice at weekly planning is a tradition. last one!  

Hey Happy Easter! Have you seen the new Easter vid, "because he lives"? It's even better in Albanian ;) I highly recommend it to everyone, and #becauseofhim (Mosiah 16:8!) is still a timeless classic. Share those short, powerful videos with everyone and anyone you can. We've been trying to share it with anyone, from English student to new investigators to friends that come with to play futbol to anyone who accidentally stumbles into the church and has a minute to spare.

http://www.mormon.org/easter

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

First, big news: Transfers! I will be staying here in Prishtine (yay!), and I will be TRAINING. (What? I just got here.) I am soo excited to teach and lead and work with some greenie fire :) Ah yes! Plus there are so many potentials and great people here that I've just met or have been working with so I'm so glad I get to stay with people I know and see/ help them progress! I find out who my baby is on Thursday! The tables are turned. :)

A highlight of this week hands down was a baptism for D, who was our referral to the zone leaders and ended up being their golden investigator... he was the poet we met on the boulevard (we found him!! not bragging just excited lol) and gave us his poetry books, idk if I mentioned him a while back? He's awesome and quit smoking and everything. I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost at his baptism and right before I was called up I could not find my paper anywhere, so I got up and gave it anyways, just tried to remember what I had written... it went fine shyqyr (would've been way better if I had my notes but, it was about D not me that day), and hey good practice for impromptu speaking and especially as a missionary just testifying always and often unexpectedly! AND, F, our investigator who IS getting baptized in Prill (as long as we can meet with her more than once a month..) and her husband (investigator who was dropped by the Elders when he wanted a business deal with the church, but still super promising) came and had a wonderful time.

Oh also we cut the crazy & so cute 3-yo son of our recent convert, S,'s hair (you might have to read that last part a few times.. kinda confusing when we're encouraged not to use names for safety reasons).. it was past his shoulders and he said he loved having it long "like Jesus!!" but decided he wanted to look like a boy, not a little girl, and especially to look like an Elder. But he wouldn't sit still for us to finish so he's a mini J-Biebz now :)

Another highlight of the week was an artist from Peja, K, who came in the church one day to show (& try to sell, and it worked because one Elder bought one) her paintings and we had a lesson with her.. she said she was a "modern muslim" so she believed in Jesus Christ and his atonement (? cool) and loved the Book of Mormon verses I shared. We gave her number to the Peja elders, and turns out the next day they were able to meet with her and her family at their house, and they're all on baptismal date..! Whoa. Are we in Brazil or Kosovo? But, kinda sad news.. Peja is being shut down (for different reasons..) but luckily Gjakova is close enough and we have a branch there.

This has been a great week, and a wonderful TRANSFER. I'm officially a "real missionary" (not a trainee) now, and not the newest out anymore ;) I'm so glad to be staying in this beautiful city because my work is not finished here and I want to give it my all!! do me thene pune nonstop gjithmone vella!

Wanted to end with two quotes I heard this past week that I really liked:

"Don't aim at success~ the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success... must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself." (Viktor E. Frankl; Man's Search for Meaning.. quoted by someone in district mtg., don't worry I only read the mission library!)

"Why do our smallest efforts matter? Because even our poorest, most pathetic little offerings can have a profoundly powerful effect upon the lives of those we love." (DeAnn Flynn.. don't know who she is tbh)

Ju Dua!!

<3 Motra Rajlli :*

like my new sweatshirt? ;)